Sign of the Month - May 2014 - Truck as Sign

I am amazed and know not what to say. - Midsummer Night's Dream

See more Trucks as Signs HERE. 

Reading to Cats

This is the feel-good Pennsylvania story of the month. I love cats.

The Animal Rescue League of Berks County PA has a program called “Book Buddies.” Children volunteer to read to sheltered cats. Via Reddit.

Have patience if you go to their website. Everyone is going there for more information, more pictures and to donate to this great program. The boy in the photo thought he was "too dumb" to learn to read. Nope. His reading and grades have improved tremendously. And the cats are finding forever homes.

Asshats on Parade - Which ones are the Good Guys? Edition

“But I don’t want to go among mad people," Alice remarked.
"Oh, you can’t help that," said the Cat: "we’re all mad here. I’m mad. You’re mad."
"How do you know I’m mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, or you wouldn’t have come here.” 
― Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland

Hot damn I love Texans. A bunch of open carry Mofos showed up at the Jack in the Box and the employees called the Cops and hid in the freezer. Mofos were indignant that they were treated like criminals. Video at the link.

Open Carry Demonstrators Scare Restaurant Employees

By Ken Kalthoff

 “They locked themselves inside a freezer for protection out of fear the rifle-carrying men would rob them,” the email stated. “The demonstration had no signage that would have alerted anyone to their real purpose, and to our knowledge they did not attempt to contact anyone in the Fort Worth Police Department to advise us prior to the demonstration.”

Fort Worth police responded to the situation as if it was a robbery. 

Imagine if the employees were also big fans of open carry and 'stand your ground'. You want to be the Cop deciding who to shoot?

What are the PoPo going to do if some customer decides to stand their ground and shoots these Mofos? Charge the frightened customer?  Know how much a trial would cost?

Shaking my damn head. Not in my State. How much tax money do they have to waste in Texas? How crazy stupid are these folks? Maybe it is the heat? You have to admit that Texans have panache. What does Pennsylvania have to offer? Scrapple? Quakers? At least when we go out to get a hamburger, we do not end up hiding in the freezer. I will take it. I am getting a little too long in the tooth for hide and seek. And scrapple is delicious.

A Vast Wasteland May Be Soon Upon Us

UPDATE: I wrote the original essay below in October 2013. I so hate to be right.

Antibiotic resistance now 'global threat', WHO warns

By Pippa Stephens

We need the Affordable Care Act. Why is the government shut down to prevent us from having health care? I have nothing funny, happy or partisan to say about this debacle. I say this:

CDC Threat Report: ‘We Will Soon Be in a Post-Antibiotic Era’

• BY MARYN MCKENNA
 

The agency’s overall — and, it stressed, conservative — assessment of the problem:

• Each year, in the U.S., 2,049,442 illnesses caused by bacteria and fungi that are resistant to at least some classes of antibiotics;

• Each year, out of those illnesses, 23,000 deaths;

• Because of those illnesses and deaths, $20 billion each year in additional healthcare spending;

• And beyond the direct healthcare costs, an additional $35 billion lost to society in foregone productivity.

“If we are not careful, we will soon be in a post-antibiotic era,” Dr. Tom Frieden, the CDC’s director, said in a media briefing. “And for some patients and for some microbes, we are already there.”

WPA Poster

We are in bad shape. We are 37th in health care outcomes among all the nations. And we pay the most for health care. That is bad, it is true. It is worse than folks think. Some Governors are resisting the ACA. Their solutions to these serious disease issues are, for example:

1. Defund women's health clinics which diagnose and treat men and women for STDs;

2. Close the only public tuberculosis hospital in the state and house the contagious patients in an old motel in a large city.

This creates active disease vectors in major population areas. These diseases will bubble upward from the poor, who cannot get medical treatment, to the rich and privileged. Disease is no respecter of gated communities, security guards, or wealth. Everyone has heard of Typhoid Mary, right? As ye sow, so shall ye reap. Do we really want to go back to 1940s? Those who do not remember and learn from history are doomed to repeat it.

Response to the Canonization of Pope John Paul II

I remember how shocked everyone was when Sinead OConnor sang this on Saturday Night Live in the 70s. I was there watching the TV. Ms. OConnor was reviled.

Fight the real enemy. It was appropriate then and is even more appropriate now. I am a Catholic baptized and confirmed.

'How can you post this and call yourself a Catholic' you may ask. It is complicated.

"Over the pope as the expression of the binding claim of ecclesiastical authority there still stands one's own conscience, which must be obeyed before all else, if necessary even against the requirement of ecclesiastical authority. Conscience confronts [the individual] with a supreme and ultimate tribunal, and one which in the last resort is beyond the claim of external social groups, even of the official church."  (Pope Benedict XVI [then Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger], "Commentary on the Documents of Vatican II", ed. Vorgrimler, 1968, on Gaudium et spes, part 1, chapter 1.)

Ghetto Garden Fabulous

My New Fig among the Daffodils

My house is a tiny HUD row house I bought as a veritable shell a decade ago. I have had to dedicate any money I had to serious repairs like putting in a heating system and erecting a front door.

I love to garden. However, my garden gets the least investment in terms of capital available. Nevertheless, I have turned it from hard packed clay with a scraggly lawn I had to mow to its present state.

I scavenged antique bricks from an old house and we made a walk. Who wants a lawn to mow? Not me. I use fallen tree branches to make garden beds. I use chunks of cement. I scavenge fallen leaves that others bag up and throw away. I compost to make soil and keep weeds down. In that way, I have raised the level of my garden 6 inches of fertile composted soil all over. Took some time.

I write a lot about garden design here. Even so, I did not realize quite what I was doing, until my Daughter suggested I get some nicer paving stones on a trip to the garden store. I recoiled. And I was not sure why. I mean, I just spent $50.00 on new fig trees.

And then the light dawned. I like the scavenging. Saves money so I can indulge in fig trees. It is a challenge. I just did not know it was a design theme. I scavenged every single one of those Iris and in another few weeks they will be glorious. I have the Herbs in and my Blueberries are doing fine.

My garden theme is Ghetto Fabulous. Example is the old ladder. It is a bean tower. I think it will be beautiful. We shall see. God bless my Daughter. Eventually she will whip me into shape. One way or another. Kind of like my garden.

Letter from Finland to America

Jore Puusa 
I am a Fin living in Finland, Europe. ( BTW Europe is on the other side of Atlantic ocean for those who had no free education)

We have free education and free healthcare. Of course we pay lots of taxes- me about 21% and richer people even 50%. But, this way everybody can stay healthy and study whatever he/she likes and has talent. Most of fins learn english, swedish, germany or french in schools, I hear that even American English is a problem at certain areas in US???.

We are a small country of five million and we do not try to learn how to live to other nations. So here I´m only telling to US citizens what real freedom sounds.

On the opposite of US we have real freedom of speech cause most of us can read or write ---as I`ve heard 14% millions of US citizens cannot read. Our people do not beg or sleep in the streets. If one gets sick he/she goes to local health station and sees a doctor. If You go only once or twice a year You pay 40 USD for those two first... all the rest is free. I does not depend on disease, if You have cancer it is as cheap as a broken leg or a flu. So why can we pay for it and mighty US cannot??

Maybe cause we are not to the right so much and we really care for other people.
Or for some other reason. Maybe You could care about Your citizens if You did not throw away Your money in useless wars. maybe.

I am a photojournalist, I´we been twice to USA. In 1984 La Olympics and in Lake Placid olympics. No other problems but the racism everywhere and crime all over seemed a bit sad. When I read angry and almost facist comments in this thread I understood that You just cannot make it better, so sad.

But its Your choice. Good luck.
Jore Puusa
Helsinki
Finland

Fred Phelps is dead and all I got is these nasty pictures. - UPDATE

UPDATE: You can find more photoshop artistry at http://www.freakingnews.com/ You will be amazed and delighted by the work there.

KARMA'S CALLING

Click Me!

Satanists Announce Plans To Turn Fred Phelps Gay In The Afterlife

FRED PHELPS JUST DIED - FUCK THAT GUY  By Gavin Haynes

THERE IS NO MORE UNCOMFORTABLY BIZARRE SENTENCE AVAILABLE ON FRED PHELPS THAN THIS FROM JON MICHAEL BELL’S ADDICTED TO HATE
You can read the full text of Bell's Addicted to Hate at the link.

“Mark remembers the family coming back once to find Pastor Phelps jogging around the dining room table, beating the sobbing [Nate] with a broom handle; while doing so, he was alternately spitting on the frightened child and chuckling the same sinister laugh so disturbing to those who've seen him on television.”

Open Carry MoFos or Not in My State

"Use a picture. It's worth a thousand words." - Arthur Brisbane 

The guy in the white coat is C.J. Grisham of Open Carry Texas and the other guys are his Posse. Aren't they special?  How confident do you feel that they can and will meet the challenges of Wayne LaPierre's brave new world?

“We, the American people, clearly see the daunting forces we will undoubtedly face: terrorists, crime, drug gangs, the possibility of Euro-style debt riots, civil unrest or natural disaster.” - Wayne LaPierre, National Rifle Association

"Most Texans are surprised to learn that the people they see openly carrying in our streets and our public spaces are not required to have had a background check or to have received any firearms safety training whatsoever," said Hillary Rand. 

Activists have congregated in malls, store parking lots, restaurants and city parks in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston and San Antonio in an effort to "normalize" the open carry of firearms. Last year in Arlington, nearly 40 open carry activists protested four Moms Demand Action volunteers by standing in the parking lot with long guns. - http://www.burntorangereport.com/diary/15065/texas-moms-demand-action-chapter-gives-testimony-on-open-carry-laws

When I googled "open carry Texas," I also found this lovely young lady with a BLOG. I looked at the picture of the posse above and I looked at her and I thought to myself "Self, maybe you misunderstand Texas culture. Could this be a mating ritual like Christian Mingle?" 

Then I found this photograph with the label "gun-girl.' My mind is officially blown. And I grew up in New Jersey. These are the women Texas legislators are trying to take reproductive rights from? 

Texas, like New Jersey, has lately become one long messy greasy salty popcorn worthy event. I am starting to love Texas. 

Note: For those who are not familiar with American slang, the meaning of 'mofo' can be found HERE. 

I'm from Texas, and one of the reasons I like Texas is because there's no one in control.

Willie Nelson

Get Your Stoning Right Here! - UPDATE

Shreveport Louisiana asked to stone some gays by transexual woman.

What is really ironic is the guy who proposed the bill in question appears to wear glasses because he has a defect in his eyes. And I wonder if he has prostate issues? According to the Levites, Ron Webb has no right to preach or even approach the Altar of God. Does he have both his testicles. Maybe he will let us check?

Leviticus 21 states:

17 “Speak unto Aaron, saying, ‘Whosoever he be of thy seed in their generations who hath any blemish, let him not approach to offer the bread of his God.
18 For whatsoever man he be that hath a blemish, he shall not approach: a blind man, or a lame, or he that hath a flat nose, or any thing superfluous,
19 or a man who is brokenfooted, or brokenhanded,
20 or crookbacked, or a dwarf, or who hath a blemish in his eye, or hath scurvy, or scabbed, or hath his stones broken.

I wonder if Ron Webb has ever read the book he is thumping. Man is an embarrassment to Christians. Blasphemy is a sin, if you are into the sin type of coercion. Personally, I like Pope Frankie's approach. The thing to keep in mind when dealing with religious authoritarians is - they have very high standards - for YOU.

If you read my blog, it is no secret I despise religious authoritarians. I hope this action becomes a standard way of dealing with religious zealots. In your face!

Call these folks out on their bullshit. Make them live up to all of the "rules," not just the ones that suit their personal prejudices. They cannot live up to their own rhetoric.  Biblical morality will get you arrested.

PHOTOS: LGBT Activists Demand Stoning at Antigay Harlem Church

Well, they'll stone you when you walk all alone
They'll stone you when you are walking home
They'll stone you and then say you are brave
They'll stone you when you are set down in your grave
But I would not feel so all alone
Everybody must get stoned. 

- Bob Dylan, Poet

Another uppity queer woman. Is this a new trend? I approve.